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Microsoft slams Yahoo! Japan-Google deal

Microsoft has moved to condemn a deal between Yahoo! Japan and Google, saying it would give Google too much control over the search market in the third-largest market in the world.

The response to the alliance came via a blog post by Microsoft VP and Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner who said, “The two main search advertising platforms in Japan are run by Google and Yahoo Japan.

“Google plans to replace Yahoo Japan’s search advertising platform with its own, reducing the number of ad platforms in Japan to just one. Google will take over the natural search results on Yahoo Japan too, replacing the Yahoo search service that Yahoo Japan had optimised for Japanese queries. The proposed deal will eliminate search competition in Japan—in paid advertising and natural search results.”

Heiner said that Google accounts for about 51% of paid search advertising in Japan while Yahoo Japan accounts for 47%.

“If Google is permitted to proceed with its plan, it would gain nearly complete control over search and search advertising in Japan through contract, not organic growth,” he continued. “Google alone would decide what consumers in Japan will find, or not find, on the web. And Google will obtain massive amounts of data regarding the search history and web sites visited by every consumer, business and government agency that conducts web searches.”